Southern Africa continues to recover from the 2015/2016 El Niño-induced drought, which by January 2017 had affected about 41 million people across the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC)1. The substantial government- and SADC-led response, supported by $900 million from the international humanitarian community2, empowered farmers to take advantage of a good 2016/2017 rainfall season, delivering an April 2017 cereal harvest 3 per cent above the 5-year average.

DOSSEYE, Chad, Nov 10 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Leila Ousmane and her 10-year-old daughter walk in disbelief atop the crumbling bricks that, until a few days earlier, formed the walls of their family home.

Heavy rains and floods in late September ravaged the Dosseye refugee camp where they live, toppling their house of mud bricks and wooden stumps into rubble.

"We went to live with my neighbour," said Ousmane. "But last night, the storm made their house collapse too."

12 November 2017 – With the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP 23), in Bonn, Germany, entering its final week of negotiations, the Fiji Presidency today announced the Gender Action Plan, highlighting the role of women in climate action.

At a press conference, President of COP 23 and Prime Minister of Fiji, Frank Bainimarama, announced that the States Parties had finalized the plan.

12 NOVEMBER 2017 | BONN, GERMANY - Today, at the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP23), WHO, in collaboration with the UN Climate Change secretariat and in partnership with the Fijian Presidency of the twenty-third Conference of the Parties (COP23), has launched a special initiative to protect people living in Small Island Developing States from the heath impacts of climate change.

Climate change has far-reaching impacts on human health and well-being. Changing temperature and rainfall patterns impact crop yield, food and water security, and nutrition. The increased frequency and intensity of extreme events can cause not only injury, but also increase the risk of water-borne diseases (diarrhoeal disease, Hepatitis A and E, bacterial diseases such as cholera), diseases associated with crowding (measles, meningitis, acute respiratory infections) and vector-borne diseases (malaria, dengue), as well as psychological and emotional distress related to traumatic events.

Researchers found that the Ebola was significantly more likely to emerge in areas with surrounding forest loss

By Nellie Peyton

DAKAR, Oct 30 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Ebola outbreaks tend to occur two years after trees have been cut down or forests cleared in West and Central Africa, researchers said on Monday, suggesting that deforestation data could be used to predict outbreaks of the deadly disease.

This discussion paper demonstrates that climate-induced non-economic loss and damage (NELD) includes forms of damage that cannot be measured or compensated financially. It includes loss of biodiversity and ecosystem services, land, territories, artefacts, life, health, knowledge, social cohesion, identity, and sovereignty, and it ultimately causes migration and displacement.

October 25, 2017 – Climate change may lead to an increase in malaria in certain spots around the world. But in other places, it may have little or no impact on the mosquito-borne disease, according to an expert panel convened at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.